How Margaret Thatcher helped catch the Yorkshire Ripper

London, Oct 3 (ANI): Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher took over the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper personally during her tenure, it has emerged.

In early eighties, the Yorkshire Ripper case had become a public scandal, with questions being about the efficiency of the police, reports the Daily Mail.

In a biography of Thatcher published while she was in office, author Hugo Young claimed she was so incensed about the Hill murder and the apparent incompetence of the police that she announced she was going to Leeds to take over the investigation in person "because nobody but her, she thought, really cared about the fate of these wretched women."

Several senior officials were told to present themselves in Thatcher's office to explain what they proposed to do. A Downing Street official recorded thatcher's words.

"The Prime Minister said that the local police had so far failed totally in their enquiries into a series of murders which constituted the most appalling kind of violence against women.

"It was now a question of public confidence. There were doubts whether the investigation was being conducted as effectively as it might be, and something needed to be done to restore the faith of the public in the police," recorded the official.

Officers caught Peter Sutcliffe, a lorry driver from Bradford, in January 1981 as he was sitting in a car with a prostitute, armed and ready to carry out his 14th murder. (ANI)